Whereas, since the close of the last administration, the Legislature and Executive Branch, claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of American nationality by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath, in some acts, expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various presences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies, established a board of commissioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial and extra-judicial judgements and penalty assessments of causes merely arising within the body of a county:

And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependant on the executive alone for their salaries, and standing armies of lawyers and accountants kept in times of peace: And whereas it has lately been resolved in Congress, that by force of a statute, made in the 1st year of the reign of President Obama, colonists may be transported to U.S.A., and tried there upon accusations for treasons and formcrimes and misprisions, or concealments of treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute, such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned:

And whereas, in the last session of Congress, a statutes was made; one entitled, “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act;” another entitled, “An act for the Revocation of Passports by the Executive Branch by Decision of the Executive Branch;” and another unconstitutional foreign agreement IGA was then made, “for Enforcing the FATCA through coercion of Foreign Governments.” All which statutes and executive agreements are impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most dangerous and destructive of American colonist’s rights:

And whereas, assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions to the executive and legislature and judicial for redress, have been repeatedly treated with contempt, by his executive’s ministers of state:

The good people of the several colonies about the world, justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of congress and administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet, and sit in general Congress, in the embassies in our cities, in order to obtain such establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties, may not be subverted: Whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their most serious consideration, the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first place, as Americans, their ancestors in like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their rights and liberties, DECLARE,

That the inhabitants of the American colonies throughout the world, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the American constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following RIGHTS:

Resolved, N.C.D. 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty and property: and they have never ceded to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.

Resolved, N.C.D. 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these colonies, were at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural- born subjects, outside the realm of U.S.A..

Resolved, N.C.D. 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy.

Resolved, 4. That the foundation of American liberty, and of all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council: and as the American colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the American congress, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed: But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the American Congres, as are bonfide, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects, outside of America, without their consent.

Resolved, N.C.D. 5. That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of the countries where they reside., and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law, in the country where they reside.

Resolved, N.C.D. 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the statutes of the countries where they reside, as existed at the time of their colonization; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances.

Resolved, N.C.D. 7. That these, colonies, are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by charters, or secured by their several codes of local laws.

Resolved, N.C.D. 8. That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the executive; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal.

Resolved, N.C.D. 9. That the keeping a standing army of lawyers and accountants in these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against law.

Resolved, N.C.D. 10. It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the American constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several colonies, by a council appointed, during pleasure, by the executive, is unconstitutional, dangerous and destructive to the freedom of the colonies legislation.

All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves, and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties, which cannot be legally taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives in their several provincial legislature.

In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire, that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such acts and measures as have been adopted since the last administration, which demonstrate a system formed to enslave Americans and their families.

Resolved, N.C.D. That the following acts of Congress and the administration are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists; and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between the world and the colonies, viz.

The several acts of FATCA (Hire Act) Passport Revocation (Fast Act). which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue outside America, extend the power of the American courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the American colonists subject of trial by jury, authorize the judges certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to, requiring oppressive security from a claimant of financial accounts  seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American colonists’ rights.

Also the Bank Secrecy Act  “An act for enforcing the Foreign Bank Account Report,” which declares a new offence outside America, and deprives the American subject of a constitutional trial by jury of the vicinage, by authorizing the trial of any person, charged with the committing any offence described in the said act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in any shire or county within the realm.

Also the multiple acts passed in the last sessions of Congress, for creating an exit tax upon leaving The Homeland, and that which is entitled, “The Exit Tax”

Also the act passed in the same session, for the better providing suitable quarters for accountants and lawyers in his executive’s service, outside America.

Also, that the keeping a standing army of accountants and lawyers in several of these colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against law as is the various “Treaties” and Intergovernmental Agreements enforcing extra-territorial taxation and enforcement.

To these grievous acts and measures, American colonists cannot submit, but in hopes their fellow subjects in America will, on a revision of them, restore us to that state, in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present, only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures: 1. To enter into a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement or association. 2. To prepare an address to the people of America, and a memorial to the inhabitants residing outside America: and 3. To prepare a loyal address to the executive, agreeable to resolutions already entered into.

OCTOBER 14, 1774  today